Prosecutors charge man with kidnapping of Detroit boy

DETROIT (AP) — Prosecutors charged a man Saturday with kidnapping in the case of a 13-year-old Detroit boy who was found dead in a vacant lot this week after being abducted from a city street.

Earnest Coleman, 26, was charged with kidnapping and will be arraigned Sunday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy said in a statement.

Coleman and other people allegedly kidnapped Deontae Mitchell at about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday outside of a market, Worthy said. She did not provide further details, except to say that the investigation is ongoing.

Three other people have been arrested, including a 45-year-old Detroit man who is waiting to be extradited from Ohio.

Deontae’s body was found Thursday on Detroit’s east side, and an autopsy found no indication that he was shot.

Deontae disappeared Tuesday night while riding bikes with a cousin, who told police that Deontae had picked up money dropped by a man who was urinating outside a market. Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man, who grabbed the boy by his arm and forced him into a car.

Police believe the man in the video was 45-year-old Gregory Walker, who was arrested Thursday with a woman in Toledo, Ohio. Walker is being held on a probation violation warrant.

“The alleged facts in this case explicitly show that the lives of some of Detroit’s children continue to be less important than everything else? — in this case a few dollars dropped from a pocket,” Worthy said in her statement. “May we all re-examine the worth of our children and we in the criminal justice system will handle the senseless murder of Deontae.”